Love Don't Roam
by Reda
Summary: /GoChi/ Memory is a funny thing. Love can have a strange effect over people. And family will tie down even the most free of spirits. /Request from Tumblr/


**Author Notes:** Tumblr request. It's funny. I don't consider all the events in Super canon, but I've taken a lot of the setup to be how I see things. Goku working the fields will forever be an awesome thing to me.

 **Pairing:** Goku x Chi-Chi

 **Words:** 1,300

 _But a fighting man forgets each cut  
Each knock, each bruise, each fall  
But a fighting man cannot forget  
Why his love don't roam no more_

The thing about staring at a sunset over a freshly tilled field nowadays was that he always had this strange urge to reminisce a little over all the sunsets he'd seen in his lifetime. Or maybe he was just getting old. Or Chi-Chi was rubbing off on him. He smiled at that. Or both.

Either way, when Goku finished his work early, he stood at the cliff side and stared off into the realm of memory. The days after Beerus' visit, after fighting – and losing to – the God of Destruction, had been filled with a lot more introspection than he usually experienced. Knowing that there was someone out there so much stronger than him got his blood pumping. A challenge had always been exciting to him, and after _losing_ Goku had an even stronger urge to shirk his farming and go back to training right away. He had so much work to do if he was going to be able to beat Beerus the next time they fought. And that Super Saiyan God power up…

Goku scratched his head and frowned at the thought. As necessary as it had been, he sure didn't like knowing how his own strength had been so inadequate that he _had_ to ask for help. Never before had he felt such an urge to rush off and train…

Yet here he stood.

"Hey, Dad, what was it like fighting Beerus?"

Snapped out of his thoughts by his younger son, Goku looked over and smiled down at Goten. Wide, eager eyes waiting for a good story stared back up at him. Yet when Goku tried to think of a good response, he found he had to laugh it off. Goten had been there. He'd seen the fight play out. Why would the boy ask him for details?

Putting a hand to his head, Goku grinned a little sheepishly because even he knew his answer wasn't what Goten would be looking for. "It was fun, I guess. A little scary at times cause I thought for sure he was gonna destroy the Earth and there didn't seem to be anything I could do about it."

Goten's excited gaze dimmed but he pushed on for more anyway. "But the _fight_. What was it like? You know, it was hard to see everything so I just wanna know -"

"Eh, Goten, I don't really remember all the details. It's not exactly something I'm thinking about in the heat of the moment."

"But – but what about your other fights? You remember those, don't you?" Goten pressed, waving his arms in the air. "Like Piccolo and Vegeta and...and Frieza."

"Uhm, well, I remember when Piccolo shot me. That hurt," Goku said, scratching at his cheek and grimacing at the memories that came to him. "When Vegeta transformed that one time and crushed all my bones...yeah, I remember that, too. And, Frieza, man, I wish I could forget the things he did, especially that tail. That thing was annoying."

"Dad," Goten said, a little whine edging into his voice. "What about the moments where you won? Like when you used a Spirit Bomb or something."

"Oh," he blinked. "Yeah, that happened."

At Goten's disappointed groan, Goku laughed again. He probably never would be able to explain to his son every little detail of every fight. Still. He knew how disappointing it could be to expect grand martial arts stories from someone and then get...well… He shrugged and hummed to himself. He thought calling the fight 'fun but scary' was good enough, but boyhood dreams would always look for something more.

"Hey, squirt," he said as he set a hand on his son's head, ruffling his hair. "Let's just go home for now. I bet your mother already has dinner waiting. I don't know about you, but I'm starving!"

A hop, skip, jump, and instant transmission later, and the two of them were back at home. Goku made sure to teleport in behind his wife with as much distance as he could manage with his technique to avoid startling her. His memory was flooded with all the times he'd regretted such a move. Smacked with so many things. A textbook, a frying pan, a ladle, a box of – well, lots of moments reminding him to be _careful_ when he used her ki signal to teleport home. Nice and warm as it was, Chi-Chi was a force to be reckoned with when she was scared or angry.

"Good. You're home." Thankfully, by now Chi-Chi had grown accustomed to his way of popping in over the years. "Dinner's almost ready. Goten, make sure you -"

"Wash my hands," Goten finished, skipping out of the room to do just that. "I know, Mom."

While his son hopped away, Goku smiled at his wife's back in silence as she stood over the sink, separating...something. How many times had he watched her cook just like this? Countless. Even with all those years he missed, seeing her work always brought things back.

Oh, now he put a hand on the countertop and watched her head turn, noticed the flicker in her eyes as she glanced his way, only to return her attention to the last little additions to their meal. He grinned, recalling times when she'd yell at him to sit down and wait patiently. Or to stop hovering so close to her as she worked. Now she tolerated his presence, though that slight glance said a thousand words.

As he straightened up and took a step toward the table, her voice carried through the sounds of bubbling pots. "You should wash your hands, too, you know. You _have_ been working out in the fields all day, after all."

He grinned a little sheepishly as he turned back to face her. Chi-Chi had a special tone in her voice whenever she was pretending not to have caught him breaking the rules. This time it was the little hint dropped around the idea of him working all day. She knew he skipped out sometimes to train a little on his own. Of course she knew. Chi-Chi always knew.

But she didn't seem too bothered by it, so he just laughed it off and walked up to stand behind her. "Yep. All that work… Chi-Chi, dinner smells great, by the way."

She hummed in response as he wrapped his arms around her for a brief moment, until he dropped his hold to lean forward, turn the sink on, and wash his hands. All while her back pressed into his chest. She huffed but otherwise didn't complain, turning her head _just so_ to catch his smile and answer with one of her own.

Her smiles were special to him. Not just because of the way her eyes lit up or the way her cheeks twitched ever so slightly as if she were about to burst. And it wasn't because he loved seeing her happy – though he did enjoy seeing her radiate happiness. It was more than all that.

Every time she smiled at him added another little moment to the count in his head. He didn't have an exact number – and of course there were all sorts of _different_ smiles, too. But _these_ kind where it felt like everything else in the world disappeared around them… Anytime he brought one of these smiles to the surface, he could see her growing up with him in his memory all over again. One little smile at a time. From the ride on Nimbus, to the proposal at the tournament, to their marriage day, to her pregnancy announcement, to Gohan's birth, and beyond. So many special little moments and all he had to do was get her to smile to remember them all.

And to remember why he stayed with her – training urge or not.


End file.
